by Ryan Johnson
“No,” yelled Lusìvar.
It seemed the scythe had weakened the Dragon’s strength.
“If I go down, I’m taking you with me!” The Five-Headed Dragon struck with all five heads and its huge body over Vaeludar, in high hopes it would crush Vaeludar with itself.
“Not today, Lusìvar!” shouted Vaeludar, jumping by very less as half an inch from all five attacks of the heads.
But the Dragon’s body pounded on Vaeludar, but the cloud within the blue blade called out to the sun’s light and a power was beamed from the sun’s raying light.
A great power flushed within Vaeludar’s numbed right arm and stabbed straight right through the falling Dragon’s body and flew right out the tail of the Dragon that fell from the cliffs of the mountainside.
Dark smoke rose! Parts of the mountain crumbled! Rocks fell!
Darkness blinded Vaeludar’s eyes but brighten his view after he burst out of the Dragon’s tail. Around him, smoke rose from the ground and the sun above him shined the clouds that were fading away.
He peeked over the cliffs and saw piles of ashes scattered over the mountainside and a large scorched mark was plastered like a hieroglyph in the body of the Five-Headed Dragon; the Five-Headed Dragon was dead and the Shadow King defeated!
Vaeludar smiled at his handy dandy work and flew towards the mountains, remembering the promise he made to the White Knight of Charity.
A KNIGHT’S PASSING
V
aeludar soared all the way towards the castle he rescued the White Knight of Charity, where she used to rule as a princess before leaving it behind, wishing it burnt to the ground.
The hybrid flew high in the sky, looking over the abandoned kingdom that was once a kingdom. A kingdom that has driven into the worse greed he could ever think possible. He remembered entering the place: the princess’s room. How embarrassing that would be if the others found out about that.
Vaeludar flew higher and higher into the sky, with his eyes turning into fiery and his ears puffing out smoke. As he touched the clouds, he dived straight like a falcon towards the castle. He spat out three fireballs and all went…
BOOM!
The castle exploded into gushes of a great explosion.
Vaeludar swept up and down, blowing out a fire at every building of this cursed place. He was blowing out yards of orange, raging fire all throughout the lost kingdom just like a real fire-breathing Dragon destroying a village.
Vaeludar was burning down the entire place, due to the promise he made to the White Knight. She didn’t want to remember the place nor never wanting to go back there. So Vaeludar decided to return and burn everything he could see to ashes. He slammed into different buildings and farmhouses on fire. Eventfully, he slammed and whipped in and out of the castle in different sections.
After rampaging for ten minutes, Vaeludar rose to the sky and saw the entire kingdom on fire and no traces of building fragments were seen. Everything single building in this kingdom was broken down to rubble and condensed to ashes and dust. The lost kingdom now became the destroyed kingdom. Vaeludar had fulfilled his promise and flew back towards the village where he battled the Five- Head Dragon.
Vaeludar landed in the very spot where he saved the girl from being sacrificed to the dragon statue. He stood beside two skeletons drenched in blood. He saw Marina, who had her siren fangs and claws and mouth sopping in blood, standing in front of two witches who seemed to be pleading for mercy.
“You stole the youths of girls,” yelled Marina. “You used the gems of the Sirens’ singing voices, my breathe kin, to lure them away, and you stole them from dead Sirens’ bones. Why should I spare you? I am a Siren, and I did away with two friends. Why should I spare you?”
“Because they are my mother’s sisters whom I will deal with them,” answered Vaeludar.
Marina and the two powerless witches turning to the hybrid.
“Vaeludar,” the female trio said.
Vaeludar seemed to be standing by the bones of the other two witches Marina mentioned, which meant the Siren had a feast made of two witches. It seemed Marina’s raging abilities had gotten the better of her.
“Marina, that is enough,” said Vaeludar. “I’ll deal with them since I killed the Five-Headed Dragon.”
“Alright,” said Marina, walking backward so Vaeludar would walk up towards the two witches, and one of them whom he recognizes as the hermit he met earlier.
Vaeludar looked straight at the unhooded hermit who turned out to be a witch with an ugly face like the other three.
“You said Belverda was a sister of you witches. Now it seemed there were five instead of four. Two have been killed by a Siren and now two are remaining standing without their powers. The fifth, my mother, is somewhere else.
“Besides being witches, living for a thousand years is a sin. Now I am wondering if I should spare you.”
“Your mother would spare us,” said the unhooded hermit. “She would give us a second chance.”
“I am not my mother, am I? I am Vaeludar. Her son. I have her magical abilities, not her personality. I have just killed Lusìvar in his dragon body, but his Spirit has not been broken. Now I have the armor gauntlet and I have only two more to go. That reminds me.”
Vaeludar stretched out his arms, showing off his evolved body. He showed the two women he wasn’t without great power.
“I know have certain when I placed the artifact on my arm, it gave me the knowledge of where I can find the second artifact: at this laboratory. Now, this village is free from your control. Go away and stay away from human life. You wasted your lives in vain. Go away into the woods and never come out alive.”
“But, hybrid,” protested the other witch. “Your mother…”
“My mother…” Vaeludar came to a pause. “I am not my mother!” Vaeludar snapped loudly and swung the Crystal Sword horizontally. A hard gush of wind blew from the quick swing and the two witches suddenly collapsed; their eyes were wide open but they showed no signs of breathing.
Vaeludar blew orange fire on upon the bodies of the four witches, the two collapsed witches and the two skeletons: the witches were dead!
“Vaeludar, you just…you just…” Marina gasped at what he did: killed unarmed women in a deep coldness
“I made a mistake already when I let them lived four years ago. A year after I saved your life, Marina. How many girls have lost their youths because I allowed these witches to live? How many were sacrificed by letting these old witches live? How many girls could I have saved, if I killed these witches four years ago? I made the mistake of sparing these witches four years ago and I ended up sacrificing more innocent girls to these witches so they can stay young.
“And you did the same thing yourself when you saw these old hags hearing gems they got from your brethren. You made no hesitation to do away with the first two. I made the decision myself to do away with the last two.”
“I guess you’re right. By the way, Vaeludar, Flavius wanted to talk to you about—”
“Vaeludar,” called out Flavius. “You better come here.”
Vaeludar heard Flavius’s voice, sheathed the Crystal Sword, and flew towards the spot he heard Flavius calling him. He saw a white tent and landed by the entrance. He entered through and Flavius standing beside Charity.
Flavius gave Vaeludar a frown and left immediately, only she and Vaeludar remained in the tent.
Charity was stripped of her armor and covered in bandages with deep bruises around her body. She was breathing softly and weakly.
“White Knight of Charity,” said Vaeludar.
“Let me guess: you killed the Dragon and burned down my former kingdom.”
“Yes to both.”
Charity smiled. “Finally, for the first time in a thousand years, I can finally come to peace. I can finally be free.”
“Free? Why do you want to be free?”
“I have lived for a thousand years as
a prisoner longer than a princess or a White Knight. And finally, you came and rescued me from the Ice Dragon. You had freed me from the Mortal Realm I’ve been living in for a thousand years.”
“Then keep living for it. The Shadow King’s Spirit is broken but he still lives. And I could still use a White Knight to help me fight against him and his forces. I need the four White Knights.
“And, with their help, we’ll be able to beat against his Shadow.” Vaeludar placed glowing hands and her chest, but they were grabbed by Charity’s hands. He was about to heal her but her grip was showing otherwise.
“Don’t! It is over for me. I have played my part of the White Knight: help you destroy the Shadow King.”
“Why? He still lives, and I can’t be fighting him alone. I need you; I need a White Knight. I need all four to ultimately defeat him and whatever evil forces he may have in hiding.” Vaeludar glowing hands faded to bare hands. He was in shock when the dying White Knight was refusing to be healed.
“I heard what the Shadow King said: you’re the last, and I will not let you die. I need a White Knight’s help to help me not just fight him but his entire force. I still need you, White Knight of Charity.”
“Not my help,” she couched heavily. “There are other people wielding the ancient power of the White Knights, and someone you know and love is going to be the White Knight of Charity.”
“Marina?”
“Not the Siren. Another girl… from your past. A girl from your long-lost past will once again become the White Knight of Charity, and I can no longer bear being among the Realm of the Living.” Her eyes turned away from him and looked above her and saw something sparkling from the tent’s roof. “Mother… Father… I have come… ho…home… to you…”
Her breathing all of a sudden stopped. Her eyes were dimmed and her hands went cold. Her body glowed yellow like the rising sunrise. Her entire body glowed and sparks had dispersed into small specs like dust, floating out of the tent. The White Knight of Charity was gone and no longer part of the physical world.
Vaeludar sadly watched as her body vapored into the air. He had never known that a legendary White Knight of old tales would die in front of him. But that is what just happened. He saw a physical body disperse into little sparks that went up into the starry, nighty sky. Darkness had been cleansed in these lands.
The White Knight of Charity died and ascended into the next world far beyond the Realm of the Living.
“Be at peace, White Knight of Charity.”
“But peace won’t bring you hope, hybrid!” Lusìvar’s shadow, cloudy spirit spurred inside the tent where. “You may have won, but you will fall. The more you use your power against me the more powerful I will become. You and I are very much alike in ways you don’t understand. We were meant to be fighting since the beginning of time.”
“The beginning of time? What is that supposed to mean? What are you talking about? How are we the same? I fight for the Light, but you fight for the Shadows. We’re not alike.”
“On the contrary, Shadow and Light are a part of the same coin; one can’t exist without the other. When the time is right, you will find out who you are and what you truly were born from. HA! HA! HA! HA!”
Suddenly, Lusìvar vanished into thin air, with his laughter slowly fading thereafter.
Vaeludar had a confused look at what his foe meant of what he was. Was he really something from the past? Or something more to Vaeludar than it seemed. He could only wait and find out more to his past and see what happens. Right now, he feels like he needs to go back south and tell King Uragiru and Geraldus what was going on in the north, but first he needed to meet with his group and meet the villagers he had liberated from the Five-Headed Dragon.
A BRIGHTER FUTURE
V
aeludar exited the tent with great confusion; Lusìvar’s mention of Vaeludar being somewhere in the beginning of time and a dying Charity mentioning a girl from his long-lost past. The hybrid seemed to have more problems than he was trying to find the gauntlet and fighting the Five-Headed Dragon. His life was starting to feel like a Hydra when he would cut off one head but two more grow back.
But in this case, Vaeludar would deal with two or more problems growing after dealing with one problem. There’s no telling how many more problems could be coming his way.
He had no idea of what girl the White Knight meant said of his long-distant past. He only remembered his foster sisters living with Geraldus. Other than those girls, he knew no one else who could become the new White Knight of Charity.
The hybrid sighed in displeasure and again when he walked to in the center of the village. Vaeludar gazed upon a crowd of people, who witnessed his fight of the Five-Headed Dragon.
Suddenly they bowed before the hybrid. This seemed to be a Minotaur fight all over again; fighting a demonic creature and become a legend the next.
Vaeludar flew over the crowd of bowing before him. He wasn’t caring about what the fame of his actions or the people he had saved.
“Vaeludar!” shouted Marina.
Vaeludar heard Marina’s voice and landed close to her. “Marina, we have lost a White Knight. It seems her power will be incarnated into someone else, but I don’t know who.”
“Too bad. After seeing your battle with a large beast with five heads, future battles are going to be hard to beat. Without a White Knight as a helping hand, the future seems doubtful.”
“But it’s good to see you alive and living, Marina the Siren.”
Marina chuckled. “I just disturbed your deep thoughts, haven’t I?”
“I’m afraid you did, Marina, I’m afraid you did. I am on my way to see Flavius. I’m still considered part of Geraldus’s family and I want to make sure my little foster sister is okay.”
Marina nodded and grabbed Vaeludar’s hand. The Siren led Vaeludar to a dome-shaped hut built from stone and stray. They went in. A fire was dimly lit. A hole cut on the hut’s ceiling lent some light from the outside.
Flavius, Wonomi, Monico, Galvin, Flarefur sat on the far side. Flarefur the Griffin sat between the known people that he separated between three unknown people. The three unknown people were a man with an eagle-feathered hat and a bear’s fur coat, a fat man wearing light battle armor, a woman wearing a feathered dress. Naìra was sitting by her brother.
Vaeludar gazed upon his companions who seemed unharmed but seemed rudely invited by these four strangers.
Marina sat down near the fire, and Vaeludar followed her. The hybrid felt like a thousand glaring dragon eyes of a hydra had been staring at him when he had entered the hut.
“We are to thank you, O great hybrid,” said the feathered-dress woman. “You have slain a great beast we feared for many a generation. The Shadow King had been working us to death with that monstrous five-headed beast.”
“Now, with the beast dead,” said the fat man, “the life we used to live will be drawn back. We can go back into reuniting the clans. With your help, the five clans will, at long last, be one clan. We are leaders of our own clan, chosen to lead each clan to victory.”
“It had been said you would come and free us from the Dark Warrior King Lusìvar,” said bear-fur wearing man. “With your powers, we shall wipe out what remains of that dreaded Shadow King’s army and once again become the people we are supposed to be: a clan strong and willing to rise from the ashes of a fallen civilization and become a great civilization again.”
Vaeludar gazed upon these leaders he was assuming the ambassadors (or the leaders) of a specific clan, with slight confusion. He was to unite five clans from a long-dead civilization? The original plan for him was to get the armor-piece from the north and work his way south to find the other two, not to unite any unknown clans.
“You look confused,” said the fat man.
“Is there something you don’t know?” asked the feathered woman.
Vaeludar sighed. “I have to be honest with you. First let me tell you every
thing about me, because if Ralenskrit and Belverda had said anything, I didn’t hear about it because…” Vaeludar explained these people from when he was raised, to where killed a Minotaur, rescued a Siren from a gripping death, and to the plan to find the armor-pieces.
Basically, he explained his life from where he was left to be raised by a human family to the moment of the Five-Headed Dragon. “…and after the White Knight of Charity died, her power will be passed to another person and then the Spirit of Lusìvar showed up and vowed to rise up again. As of right now, we’ve beaten him, but only temporary.” After he was done, Vaeludar leaned back and loosen his wings on the ground.
The three clan leaders whispered and muttered to themselves, quiet-like. Their eyes stared and their mouths were very low whispering Vaeludar couldn’t hear what the clan leaders were talking about.
Then after a short moment, the three leaders turned back to Vaeludar.
“You say you were raised by a group of humans, and not Dragons?” asked the woman.
“And you never knew you dragon father and human mother who is a witch?” asked the fat man.
“That is right,” Vaeludar admitted. “I never knew them. I was raised by humans. Why? You may be wondering. I am the first of my kind: a human-dragon hybrid. Where I was raised I was never accepted into any society because of my background appearance. How was it possible for a human and a dragon to mate and produce a child? This is a mating process I know that has never been done before, because of the massive body size of a dragon and a small two-legged human.
“Somehow, I am an exception. I don’t know how I was made. I don’t how my parents did it. They just did. And I have no idea how they managed it. I don’t know anything about them, where they are, or what their currently doing.
“They just left me on a doorstep of a large stone house, where I had to learn to muster my abilities on my own, without the help of any supervision from my dragon father or my human mother.” Vaeludar leaned forward and placed his hands on his crossed, hind dragon legs. “I’m not what you have expected me to be. And my original plans are to seek out armor artifacts like this one on my arm here. I didn’t know people lived here in the Northern Region.”